"Would you rather wait 2 months just to see a specialist and another 2 months for treatment like patients in nationalized healthcare systems frequently do?" Th

"Would you rather wait 2 months just to see a specialist and another 2 months for treatment like patients in nationalized healthcare systems frequently do?" This is so misinformed it's borderline laughable (if it wasn't thrown out there by someone who is a member of the HN community and, I'd assume, an intelligent peer.) I have been treated in Argentina for urgent and non-urgent issues and never, ever, had to wait 2 months for anything. When I was referred to a specialist (best of her branch of medicine in a city of almost a million inhabitants) I got an appointment the following week and started treatment within a month. Whenever I needed something, like an X-ray or bloodwork, I could either get it free of charge at the local hospitals or just pay for it (incredibly, a CT Scan with the same machines they use in the US costs 1/6 the price in Argentina. How's that for free market economy?) and get a result immediately. So, all in all, this is complete bunk. People who have never experienced any other system are by definition the worst to make a comparison with the US system. I've used the Brazilian, the Argentinian, the British and the US system and by far my worst experience has always been in the US, even while paying through my nose to get the same care I'd get for free in either of the 'developing' nations. Heck, I've used the _private_ system in the UK and even if I paid the extra bit to be seen by a doctor (20' wait at the practice; Oh! The horrors of endless lines and dead panels!) I only had to pay ~£2.50 to get all the medicine he prescribed (that's the upper bound, after that everything else is free.) So yeah, definitely the US is not a welfare state. If anything, it's the contrary: a profiteering system where healthcare is just secondary to profit.